Lavatory assembly



Oct. 30, 1962 J. AMENT 3,060,454

LAVATORY ASSEMBLY Filed March 24, 1960 egr-rozusvs United States Corporation of America, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 24, 1960, Ser. No. 17,362 3 Claims. (Cl. 4-170) This invention relates to lavatories and, more particularly, to an assembly for connecting a lavatory to an opening in a substantially flat surfaced supporting board.

It has become common procedure to mount lavatories in drop-in type installations wherein a flange around the upper portion of the lavatory rests upon a substantially flat surfaced drainboard or other supporting board with the bowl of the lavatory depending through an opening in the board. Normally, some type of connection is provided to grip the underside of the supporting board to hold the lavatory firmly in place. It is especially desirable that such a connection be carried by the lavatory itself. Thus, all of the parts may be transported together and easily mounted and connected to the drainboard.

In the past various types of clamping devices have been provided to connect such a lavatory to a drainboard. Many of these prior devices have been inconvenient, complex, or unduly expensive. Others have not provided sufficient gripping action. In particular, the prior art devices have been defective for use in connecting a lavatory which is formed from material such as ceramic material which is capable of bearing considerable stress in compression or in shear but is notably weak in tension and in bending. Heretofore available connecting devices have imposed severe tension and bending stresses on such material.

To overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, it is a general object of this invention to provide an improved lavatory assembly having a bowl adapted for installation in an opening of a substantially flat surfaced supporting board, a flange around the periphery of the 'bowl to rest on the board and means to clamp the lavatory to the board.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide such a lavatory assembly which includes simple, convenient, and inexpensive clamping devices, and improved reinforcing members to transfer the forces set up by the connection to the supporting board to the lavatory without subjecting any portion of the lavatory to undue stress.

A further object of the invention is to provide such a lavatory assembly with a connection to the supporting board which minimizes tension and bending stresses in the lavatory.

In general, the invention embraces a lavatory assembly for installation in an opening of a substantially flat surfaced supporting board which includes a lavatory having a bowl adapted to drop into the opening, a flange extending around the upper periphery of the bowl to rest on the top of the board near the top of the opening, and rigid reinforcing means connecting the outside of the bowl to the bottom of the flange. Also provided are clamping means having bearing surfaces at the opposite ends thereof to engage the bottom of reinforcing means and the bottom of the board. In addition, fastener means are provided which connect the reinforcing means to the clamping means to draw the clamping means into engagement with the reinforcing means and the board. Thus, there is provided a firm connection between the lavatory and the supporting board characterized by great simplicity, economy, ease of operation and which does not subject any portion of the material of the lavatory to undue stress.

The invention having been generally described, a preferred specific embodiment will now be discussed in deice tail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a partially broken away plan view of a lavatory assembly according to the invention mounted on a supporting board;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 showing details of the connection to the supporting board; and

FIGURE 3 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of FIGURE 2 showing further details of the connection.

There is shown in the drawings a lavatory assembly 1 mounted on a substantially flat surfaced drainboard 2 which at least in part supports the lavatory. The lavatory includes a bowl portion 3, a flange 4, and a plurality of upright reinforcing webs 5. The invention finds particular utility when the bowl, flange, and webs are integral with one another and are formed of material strong in compression and shear but Weak in tension and bending. Preferably ceramic material such as porcelain or vitreous china is employed. Normally, the lavatory is formed in one piece by a molding or casting operation.

The bowl 3 normally descends into an opening 6 in the drainboard. The usual drain opening 7 is provided in the lower portion of the bowl to connect to piping leading to appropriate disposal facilities. Preferably, an appropriate overflow drain from the top of the bowl to the outlet piping is integrally cast into the lavatory, but forming no part of the present invention, the overflow drain is not shown.

The flange 4 extends around the entire upper periphery of the bowl 3. As shown in FIGURE 2, the flange extends upwardly and outwardly from the upper periphery of the bowl to form an inclined drain portion 8. As seen in FIGURE 1, the inclined drain portion 8 is substantially steeper at the rear of the lavatory than along the sides or the front. The inclination of the front portion of the drain 8 is less than along the side portions. The rear portion of the inclined drain 8 is provided with a series of openings 9 in which hot and cold water faucets and a drain control may be mounted. The outer terminal portion of the flange 4 is bent downwardly to form a lip 11, the bottom end of which rests upon the drainboard 2 near the edge of the opening 6. The bottom of the lip 11 is grooved as shown at 12 to receive a sealing or adhesive compound 13 which is interposed between the lip and the drainboard to prevent leakage past the lip.

As best seen in FIGURE 2, the webs 5 form rigid reinforcing members which connect the outside of the bowl to the flange to transmit stresses therebetween. As shown in FIGURE 1 each of the webs is relatively thin and protrudes substantially perpendicular to the bowl wall. Further, each of the webs 5 is continuously adjoined to the outside of the bowl 3 and the bottom of flange 4 over a substantial distance of each. The continuous adjoinrnent extends from the juncture of the flange 4 and the bowl 3 a substantial distance in both directions, i.e., downwardly along the bowl 3 and outwardly along the flange 4. This construction provides maximum reinforcement for the flange and the bowl and, as more fully discussed hereinafter, effects a wide distribution of the stresses which are transmitted to the lavatory bowl and flange by the connections to the drainboard.

The lower and outer ends of the webs 5 terminate in rounded portions or fillets 14 and 15 which further tend to prevent concentration of stresses in the ceramic material.

A horizontal bearing surface 16 is provided along the bottom of each of the webs 5. Preferably, the vertical spacing between the bearing surface 16 on the web 5 and the bearing surface on the bottom of the lip 11 is equal or substantially equal to the thickness of the drainboard 2. Normally, the bottom surface of the drainboard is horizontal. Thus, the bearing surface 16 of each web and the bottom surface 17 of the drainboard lie in or substantially in the same horizontal plane.

Each of the webs is also provided with an opening 18 extending entirely therethrough in a peripheral direction relative to the bowl wall and having rounded corners as shown in FIGURE 3. The bottom of each web preferably is relieved by being inclined upwardly, as indicated at 19, from the outer end of the bearing surface 16 to the outer wall of the web. The inclined surface 19 commences inwardly of the opening 18.

Depending from each web 5, is a bolt 21 having a hooked upper portion 22 extending through the opening 18. The hook 22 has a lower surface corresponding to the lower wall of the opening 18 so that any downward force which is imparted to the bolt 21 will be transmitted substantially uniformly along the lower wall of the opening 18 and will subject the web 5 to compressive and shear stresses. The lower end of the bolt 21 extends through an opening in a clamping bar 23, one of which is provided for each of the webs 5. Mounted around the bolt 21 on the lower side of each of the clamping bars 23 is a suitable washer 24 and wing nut 25 which is threadedly engaged with the end of the bolt 21. The clamping bar 23 is preferably a straight, flat bar made of metal. Bearing surfaces '26 and 27 are provided at the tops of the opposite ends of each clamping bar 23. The bearing surfaces 26 and 27 correspond to the bearing surfaces 16 and 17 on the web 5 and drainboard 2 respectively.

Thus, when the wing nuts 25 are tightened, the clamping bars 23 are drawn into close engagement with the web 5 and the drainboard 2. Clamping engagement is effected between the bearing surfaces 16 and 26 and the bearing surfaces 27 and 17. In the event that the surface 17 is slightly higher than the surface 16, the relieved portion 19 of the web 5 permits the bar 23 to be pivoted slightly about the surface 16 to insure adequate gripping of the drainboard.

It can be seen that the force imposed on the flange 4 by the weight of the lavatory is partially transmitted to the lavatory bowl through the webs 5 thereby avoiding extreme bending stress at the juncture of the flange and bowl. Further, the force imposed on the webs 5 by the clamping action is distributed between the bowl and the flange. Still further, the clamping stress is transferred to the ceramic material of the web 5 in compression at the bearing surface 16 and in compression and shear by the hooked portion 22 of the bolt 21. Such stress in turn is transferred to the ceramic material of the bowl 3 and flange 4 by the elongated connection between the 4 webs 5 and the bowl and flange which distributes the stress over a wide area. Thus, a minimum of tension and bending stresses are transmitted to the material of the lavatory.

There has been illustrated and described what is considered to be a preferred embodiment of the invention. It will be understood, however, that various modifications may be made by persons skilled in the art without departing from the broader scope of the invention which is de termined by the claims.

I claim:

1. A lavatory assembly for installation in an opening of a substantially flat surfaced supporting board which comprises a lavatory having a bowl adapted to drop into said opening, a flange extending around the upper periphery of said bowl to rest on the top of said board near the edge of said opening, and a plurality of upright reinforcing webs spaced around the periphery of said bowl; each of said webs comprising a relatively thin flat memprotruding substantially perpendicular to said bowl wall and continuously adjoined to the outside of said bowl and the bottom of said flange over a substantial distance in both directions from the juncture of said bowl and flange; each of said webs having a bearing surface spaced below the outer edge of said flange a distance substantially equal to the thickness of a board on which it is to be mounted, each of said webs having an opening extending laterally therethrough in a peripheral direction relative to said bowl wall and located intermediate the ends of the adjoinment between said web and said flange, each of said webs having an outer portion bridging the outer side of said opening to wholly enclose said opening within the web; a plurality of clamping elements each having bearing surfaces at its opposite ends to engage the bearing surface of one of said webs and the bearing surface of said board; and a plurality of fastener means extending through said Web openings and connected to said elements intermediate said bearing surfaces to draw said elements into clamping engagement with said webs and said board.

2. A lavatory assembly according to claim 1 wherein said bowl flange and webs are integrally formed of cast material.

3. A lavatory assembly according to claim 1 wherein said bowl flange and webs are integrally formed of ceramic material.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,646,636 Baker Oct. 25, 1927 2,582,463 Skinner Jan. 15, 1952 2,938,217 Drain May 31, 1960 yittesting Officer UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION 1 1 Patent No, 3 ,060 ,454 October 30 1962 Myron J. Ament It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 4, line 19, "mem-" should read member Signed and sealed this 19th day of August 1969.

(SEAL) Attest:

Edward M. Fletcher, Jr.

Commissioner of Patents 

